Greiner plants roots in the US, looks for future growth

Greiner Packaging Corp. has big plans for the United States and beyond.

It's just the nature of the business these days. For many plastics packaging companies, it's go big or go home.

But that doesn't mean Greiner, which has opened its first U.S. manufacturing site in Pittston, Pa., won't take a measured approach to growth.

A key part of Greiner's North American strategy involves the company's K3 technology that combines plastic and cardboard to create packaging that provides both environmental and performance attributes.

K3 stands for Karton-Kunststoff-Kombinationen in German, or cardboard-plastic combination.

This approach uses polypropylene as an inner layer and cardboard as an outer layer, a combination that reduces the amount of plastic used to make the containers.

“When you look into the shelves here in the U.S. super markets, I still think you see a lot of uniformity in the packaging solutions in the chilled area,” said Michael Reiser, CEO of Greiner's U.S. operations.

So Greiner believes its K3 technology, developed to respond to European environmental challenges, has a bright future here.

“It's a unique packaging solution. It's designed to slim down the plastic content of the packaging. And the goal is to provide the properties that we need for food by the plastics, and provide the stability of the packaging that we need by the cardboard,” Reiser explained.

While the company is well aware of the need to be cost effective, Greiner is not out to be just another container company trying to grab market share in an already competitive market.

“We are trying to be as efficient as possible, but we are going to higher ends of the market where quality, differentiation, sustainability are the main drivers for the customers,” Reiser said.

Greiner's decision to build a manufacturing site in the United States comes from both an internal push to grow as well as an external demand from multinational brand owners to have supplier operations outside of Europe.

“It's a highly competitive market. Really to grow substantially as Greiner Packaging, you had to go outside of Europe. I think to go into the U.S. as a first step outside of Europe definitely makes a lot of sense,” he said.

The company selected the Northeast because the site allows U.S. employees to have time during the normal business day to communicate with colleagues in Europe despite the time difference.

And while parent company Greiner Packaging International GmbH is based in Kremsmünster, Austria, it has existing English-speaking operations in the United Kingdom. That knocks down the language barrier.

With operations now established on the East Coast, the company is considering additional locations.

“We already realize we have a growing number of customers on the West Coast,” Reiser said. “And from a mid-term perspective, it will not make sense to only serve them out of Pennsylvania. We will definitely grow over the country and from there we will grow into other parts of the continent.”

But for Greiner, a family-owned company, growth will be measured.

“At a certain stage, we will have to be there, but of course we want to grow step by step,” he said. “We must not grow too quick. That is always difficult and dangerous.”

“When you do this too quick,” Reiser said, “you very easily dilute your resources and that must not happen. Let's build up what we do here in a professional and best possible way and then talk about the next steps.”

Greiner's growth aspirations in North America mirror a larger push to also move into other parts of the world beyond Europe over time, Reiser said. “I have colleagues who are already looking at expansion in the Far East,” he said. “Greiner Packaging is really working on a global footprint.”

Greiner is using about half of a 220,000-square-foot building in Pittston, and Reiser expects operations to move into the other half during the next year or so. The facility also has the ability to expand to up to 300,000 square feet.

“When I look at a vision on what we are doing here in the Americas, I'm sure we will grow beyond that location, not only within the U.S., but as well within the Americas,” he said.

While K3 packaging is a key differentiator in the U.S. market, Reiser said, the company also provides in-mold labeling and direct printing at its site where it uses extrusion, thermoforming and injection molding to create containers.